Geography

Geography 

At St. John’s, we encourage the children’s interest in their own surroundings and develop within them a knowledge and understanding of the physical and human processes which shape places. We foster the children’s knowledge of other cultures and, in doing so, teach a respect and understanding of what it means to be a positive citizen in a multi-cultural country. As global citizens, we encourage pupils at St. John’s to develop a commitment to sustainable ways of living and the importance of looking after our wonderful planet.

Intent

St. John’s recognises that geography helps children to develop their understanding of places and environments. It is, by nature, an investigative subject, which develops an understanding of concepts, knowledge and skills.

Through the teaching of geography, we aim to:

• Stimulate children’s interest in their surroundings and develop a knowledge and understanding of the physical and human processes which shape places.

• Increase children’s knowledge of other cultures and, in doing so, teach a respect and understanding of what it means to be a positive citizen in a multi-cultural country.

• Provide learning opportunities that enthuse, engage, and motivate children to learn and foster a sense of curiosity and wonder at the beauty of the world around them.

• Encourage, in children, a commitment to sustainable development and an appreciation of what ‘global citizenship’ means.

• Help children make sense of their own surroundings through learning about their own locality and the interaction between people and the environment.

• Develop the geographical skills, including how to use, draw and interpret maps of different scales, and the vocabulary necessary to carry out effective geographical enquiry.

• Help children apply map reading skills to globes and atlas maps and to identify geographical features.

• Formulate appropriate questions, develop research skills and evaluate material to inform opinions.

• Enable children to work geographically in a range of appropriate contexts, using a variety of materials and equipment.

Implementation

Specified Geography units will be taught three times per academic year in Terms 2, 4 and 6. This will happen in each class according to the unit stated on the curriculum map. Within each unit, the children will firstly be introduced to the vocabulary in order to understand what the unit will involve and to become familiar with the words that will be used throughout the unit. This will then encourage links to made with previous learning, e.g. which vocabulary has been met before, links made to previous learning, what new learning will this lead on to during the unit in order to help the children to know more and remember more.

The children will be encouraged to talk like geographers using the vocabulary linked to the current unit and previous vocabulary that they have learned within the context of Geography. Unit-specific vocabulary will be displayed in the classroom during the teaching of the unit. This will be adapted to ensure that it is appropriate for the year group(s) and progressive. When the children are being taught Geography, it will be made explicit that this is the subject that they are doing.

Assessment

To assess the children’s knowledge in EYFS and KS1, at the end of each unit the children will produce a practical piece of work and asked questions about what they know based on the piece that they have produced. Each unit comes with a clear assessment task and examples of questions to ask the children. This knowledge will then be recorded on the end-of-unit assessment sheet by each class teacher. These outcomes are accessible to all staff through the shared drive which allows teachers to see exactly where each child is based on the learning for the previous year’s units so that children who need extra input can be provided with pre-teaching sessions to recap vocabulary / concepts that the children will need to know before they embark on the next unit. Likewise, it also shows those children who are achieving greater depth in particular units so that teachers will be able to provide the appropriate level of challenge in their future learning.

To assess the children’s knowledge in KS2, at the end of each unit the children will produce an essay based on the learning within each lesson. The knowledge that the children have demonstrated through their writing will then be recorded on the end-of-unit assessment sheet by each class teacher. As for EYFS and KS1, these outcomes are accessible to all staff through the shared drive which allows teachers to see exactly where each child is based on the learning from the previous year’s units so that children who need extra input can be provided with pre-teaching sessions to recap vocabulary / concepts that the children will need to know before they embark on the next unit. Likewise, it also shows those children who are achieving greater depth in particular units so that teachers will be able to provide the appropriate level of challenge in their future learning.

Impact

Through following the approach outlined in the implementation stage, children at St John’s have access to an engaging Geography curriculum that provides them with strong foundations on which they can build as they progress throughout their education and beyond into the wider world.